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Trees in Calgary

I remember the City wanted to plant some extra trees at a park in some residential neighborhood a few years ago and all these NIMBYist came out complaining about how it would end up increasing crime in the area. Shocking but these are the kinds of scums living in our City.

The NE is particularly bad, I grew up in Martindale for the majority of my life and thankfully it has a decent amount of vegetation but head up north one neighborhood and it's a concrete jungle of driveways in Saddleridge. I think the City should implement some sort of policy that every household needs to have a minimum of one tree. Maybe throw it under Climate emergency or something to justify the policy.
 
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gsunnyg said:
I remember the City wanted to plant some extra trees at a park in some residential neighborhood and all these NIMBYist came out complaining about how it would end up increasing crime in the area. Shocking but these are the kinds of scums living in our City.

The NE is particularly bad, I grew up in Martindale for the majority of my life and thankfully it has a decent amount of vegetation but head up north one neighborhood and it's a concrete jungle of driveways in Saddleridge. I think the City should implement some sort of policy that every household needs to have a minimum of one tree. Maybe throw it under Climate emergency or something to justify the policy.
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The NE sticks out when it comes to lack of trees. I'm not at all trying sound racist, but some of it's cultural. I worked with a guy who lived in a newly built rowhome condo complex in Martindale. The developer had to plant X amount of trees as part of the development, and they planted them all in a central green space. There was a one year contract for a company to water the trees, but after the contract ended, the condo board had to decide on what top do. Most of the people on the board were from a certain part of Asia, and none of them wanted to hire a company to water the trees. My coworker friend offered to use his own water for the trees if the condo board paid his water bill, and they still said no, with some asking why they would even want trees.
Again, I'm not trying to be racist (I'm also from an Asian background), just pointing out the role of trees and landscaping varies to different people and cultures. In general, the people of the NE of any color or background seem to place less importance on trees.
 
Cowtown said:
The NE sticks out when it comes to lack of trees. I'm not at all trying sound racist, but some of it's cultural. I worked with a guy who lived in a newly built rowhome condo complex in Martindale. The developer had to plant X amount of trees as part of the development, and they planted them all in a central green space. There was a one year contract for a company to water the trees, but after the contract ended, the condo board had to decide on what top do. Most of the people on the board were from a certain part of Asia, and none of them wanted to hire a company to water the trees. My coworker friend offered to use his own water for the trees if the condo board paid his water bill, and they still said no, with some asking why they would even want trees.
Again, I'm not trying to be racist (I'm also from an Asian background), just pointing out the role of trees and landscaping varies to different people and cultures. In general, the people of the NE of any color or background seem to place less importance on trees.
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Hmm, interesting. I'm of South Asian descent and I know a lot of South Asian people(particularly immigrant generations) will do anything to save a few bucks but that's a bit shocking, especially if they didn't want trees. Every South Asian I've known loves gardening. I know for South Asians living in detached homes, the issue is they usually put their basement suites up for rent, so to accommodate for extra parking, they'll extend their driveways (which I know there was a whole issue about on the news as well). But even my parents, who are immigrants, would encourage me to garden and plant trees. Their only issues with trees were if they blocked sunlight from entering the house, which might be the case here. Plus land parcels in Calgary are really small compared to cities like metro Vancouver. If you ever visit Surrey, the South Asians have built courtyards on redeveloped properties, where they have incorporated fancy landscaping with trees and a garden. So ya, maybe your friend just got stuck with a bunch of bad apples.🤷‍♂️
 
For a city with our climate, a decent goal - considering our current number is ~1.5 million trees - would be about 4 million. Calgary already wastes considerably more water per person than any other Canadian city despite being the most arid. I don't see a considerable "need" for more. We already have the most park space, by percentage, of any urban area on the continent. Part of what makes the city unique is our arid steppe natural environment. Replacing that with non-indigenous trees is the opposite of natural.
 
UrbanWarrior said:
For a city with our climate, a decent goal - considering our current number is ~1.5 million trees - would be about 4 million. Calgary already wastes considerably more water per person than any other Canadian city despite being the most arid. I don't see a considerable "need" for more. We already have the most park space, by percentage, of any urban area on the continent. Part of what makes the city unique is our arid steppe natural environment. Replacing that with non-indigenous trees is the opposite of natural.
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We don’t need millions more, but even 300k- 500k would make a difference depending on the placement of them.
Once the trees hit a certain size they don’t need to be watered or looked after anymore. The city would need to plant them and take good care of them for the first 5 to 10 years and after that they should be good.
 
Despite our meagre urban canopy, Calgary does have some epic tree-lined streets, like this block on 19 Ave NW, which can stand up against anything you'd see in wetter, warmer cities.
elm trees.jpg
 
Alot of the mature poplars have been removed which has hurt our canopy in established neighborhoods. If the trees are ash or elm they tend to last decades longer into maturity
 
The City traditionally does a horrible job of planting and maintaining trees:
-planting them too late in the year (I know some people claim you can plant in the fall, but I always had far more success with planting in April and May)
-planting in locations where they are unlikely to survice (ex. west facing slopes, small vaults for street trees, too close to roads). The vaults that work for street trees in other cities don't work in Calgary. Planting too close to pavement or concrete also seems to decrease survivability in Calgary
-not providing wide enough boulevards and medians. Again, trees need more space to root in a dry climate with high temperature variability like Calgary
-not watering often enough for about the first 5 years
-siting too many in locations where they are likely to be hit my cars in the winter

The BP Birth Place forest program in the early 2000's seemed to do a great job of planting and maintaining trees - possibly something to emmulate.

Calgary trees already face many challeges and now the increased use of road salt in recent years seems to be taking its toll.

Before I left Calgary, my house backed directly onto Fish Creek Park. I had 9 trees on the lot plus probably 100+ bushes and junipers. It was high maintenance but looked great. The owner after me took great care of the yard, but the subsequent owner unfortunately removed most of the landscaping so the yard is little more than dead grass now :( I question why someone uninterested in enjoying a yard would purchase a home like that. The only thing worse would be parking an RV in the yard.
 
Disraeli said:
Alot of the mature poplars have been removed which has hurt our canopy in established neighborhoods. If the trees are ash or elm they tend to last decades longer into maturity
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Poplars grow well, but their shallow roots can be problematic, the fuzz produced by the female trees bothers some people, and they have comparatively short lifespans. Poplars were popular in Calgary until about the early 80's.
 
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